Police in Hurst, Texas released dramatic footage of a house explosion. The incident happened April 7 as officers arrived shortly after an SUV crashed and cut a gas line. Three people who were in the home are recovering from their injuries. (April 19)
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IMPD Chief Bryan Roach speaks after murder charges were announced in the killing of 1-year-old Malaysia Robson. Mayor Joe Hogsett (left) looks on at the Marion County prosecutor's office in Indianapolis, Tuesday, April 17, 2018.(Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar)Buy Photo

Two of Indianapolis' key crime-fighting initiatives are expected to finally take shape by the end of the year as the Police Department fully returns to beat policing and implements new software to more quickly analyze and respond to crime.

A collection of city-owned surveillance cameras also will be targeted for upgrades and an expansion.

Together, the efforts should bolster the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's fledgling real-time crime center — which is hampered by broken cameras and ineffective technology — and empower command staff to implement similar centers within each of the department's six districts.

In an interview with IndyStar, Mayor Joe Hogsett said he intends to outline the updates in his state of the city address at 6 p.m. Monday at the Indiana Landmarks Center. The speech also will unveil the administration's goals for new investments in city streets and its plans to consider selling city-owned real estate Downtown.

Crime remains a top concern for residents. Criminal homicides have risen every year since 2010, reaching records in each of the past three years. Non-fatal shootings also are on the rise.

In response, IMPD is doubling down on a rare bright spot in its battle to reduce violence: its beat policing initiative. Indianapolis saw a decline in criminal homicides and non-fatal shootings across most of IMPD's 19 beats last year.

On Monday, Hogsett will inform the public about IMPD's newly created map that contains 78 total beats across the city. They are replacing 33 zones.

It's the next step for the Hogsett administration, which has pledged to strengthen IMPD's ranks with additional hires. The department switched from beat patrols to zone patrols when the force had too few officers to walk the streets. Staffing bottomed out at 1,535 officers by 2013 after a hiring freeze.

By the end of 2019, however, the administration projects having 1,743 officers. The increased staffing is permitting IMPD to transition away from requiring officers to patrol large swaths of geography. Instead, the aim is to push officers to leave their patrol cars and walk in more focused areas.

The new beats may remain understaffed at times. When a beat's assigned officer is on vacation, for example, a nearby officer may pick up that patrol.

The beats are larger than IMPD would like, too, but they will change as reinforcements arrive from the academy.

"The number of beats will continue to grow, and the patrol areas will continue to shrink, as we bring law enforcement back to the neighborhood," Hogsett told IndyStar.

District commanders are determining which officers provide the best fit, as IMPD Chief Bryan Roach calls it, for each beat. Younger officers have never worked in such an environment, Roach said, whereas veterans can recall working within beats before the department was forced to rely on zone policing.

The department's aspirations regarding narrower beats also will require a boost in technology.

In his speech, Hogsett will outline the final phase of a years-long timeline to implement new systems for computer-aided dispatch, data analysis and record-keeping. The systems, provided by a single vendor, will replace disparate software that were aging and struggled to connect with one another, according to the department.